Koby Duru knows just what he and his new teammates are getting into today.

The transfer wide receiver from San Jose State will make his first college start when his career began, in Bozeman, Montana.

Duru and the Cowboys will take on Montana State in the season opener in front of a sellout crowd inside Bobcat Stadium.

“It is going to be wild there,” Duru said. “They really get behind their football team. They don’t have any pro teams to follow so they follow them.”

The game is the first for new McNeese State head coach Gary Goff, who looks to kick-start the Cowboys, who for the first time in 33 years are coming off back-to-back losing seasons.

McNeese finished 4-7 last season and hasn’t won a playoff game since 2002, a string of six consecutive losses.

“This will be a really good test to show where we are and where we want to be as a program,” Goff said. “They are a very good football team we are going up against. It will be a big challenge.”

The Cowboys are taking some of their home weather with them on the trip. The temperate at kickoff is expected to be above 90 degrees.

“I wish it was going to be humid as well,” Goff said.

The fourth-ranked Bobcats are coming off a 12-3 season that saw them reach the Football Championship Subdivision title game where they lost to powerhouse North Dakota State.

“Not an easy place to start but we have to get to the point where we are willing to play anybody anywhere and at any time,” Goff said. “These are the games we want to be playing in.”

The former Valdosta State head coach is retooling the Cowboys on the fly. Fifty-eight newcomers arrived at camp this fall with 15 transfers by way of the NCAA portal.

That makes them an interesting opener for the Bobcats.

“McNeese is a really good opponent who traditionally have had a good football program,” said Montana State head coach Brent Vigen. “They are coming off a coaching change so there is uncertainty (with) what we are going to see. You will have to be ready to adjust during the game.”

The Bobcats look poised at making another run at the national crown behind quarterback Tommy Mellott. He was injured early in the title game last January which cost the Bobcats any realistic chance at pulling off the upset.

But this is not last year’s team in Bozeman. The Bobcats lost eight of their 13 all-Conference players including three all-Americans on defense. They also lost four of their starting offensive linemen.

The Bobcats will be without preseason all-American running back Isaiah Ifanse, who is recovering from knee surgery. Ifanse ran for 1,623 yards (No. 2 in FCS) and 10 touchdowns last season. The Bobcats will use several running backs to fill his spot, Vigen said.

McNeese has its own host of new players, but the defense will still hold the key.

“Don’t get get caught up record-wise in recent years, let’s see what they are capable of but there is new energy and new life we will have to contend with,” Vigen said.

Goff said Thursday he was considering flipping his decision about starting Cam Ransom at quarterback and might go with Knox Kadum. It will be a game-time decision, he said.

“Both are going to play,” Goff said. “We will go with the hot hand.”

The Cowboys are hoping to send a message they are on the way back.

“We are ready for this game,” said defensive lineman Mason Kinsey. “We know they are good but we have a plan. We are going to go up there and have fun. All the pressure is on them.”

Or as Cowboys running back Deonta McMahon said, “We are going to give it our best shot and maybe we’ll shock the world.”